Pan Ams recap

I'm am walking around with a big, idiot grin on my face, after winning double gold at the Pan Ams.  I am extremely grateful to my coaches and training partners at Triangle Jiu Jitsu and the rest of Team Royce Gracie for their jiu jitsu awesomeness and team effort in preparing for this tournament. I am also thankful for my swimming, crossfit, and yoga buddies for the kick ass conditioning! Here are some points I took away from the experience. 

1) Women want matches, not guaranteed medals.

This was the inaugural year for the female masters division, and being over 30, that’s where I was automatically placed upon registration. One-by-one, other women entered the masters division until our numbers reached a whopping grand total of 4. And none were in my weight class. .

I started freaking out. What if no one else entered my division?! I did not want to fly to New York to simply watch a tournament. Later, I found out that we could move down to the adult division if we wanted to. I did so – and one-by-one, so did everyone else.          

I was proud that all the masters women opted to enter the division that would give them the most matches - not the division that would give them the guaranteed medals. 

I have no doubt that one day there will be enough women in jiu jitsu to support a masters division, but it seems we are not there yet. In due time, friends, in due time. 

2) Renzo Gracie is a jiu jitsu super hero. I was watching my teammate Jeff Shaw's match, when something in the background caught my eye. My other teammate Harold Hubbard had dislocated his shoulder - BAD. It was twisted at an awkward, grotesque angle that was so terrible that I could not stare at it directly.  The human body is NOT supposed to bend that way, Now, as many of you know, Harold is a big, giant pain in my ass. I daydream about heel-hooking him on a daily basis..Yet, it was hard to see him in this much pain. My attention shifted between cheering for Jeff and checking back to make sure Harold was ok. But I couldn't look at the latter for more than a second or 2, before I had to turn away in disgusted horror. (True, this is the reaction I usually have when I look too closely at Harold. But it is all a matter of degrees). Then the unthinkable happened. Renzo Gracie himself jumped from the stands, hopped over the barricade, and popped Harold's shoulder back in place, giving him immediate relief! Just like a jiu jitsu super hero! And just as suddenly, he disappeared back into the background.

3) My coach and I figured out what I need to work on. They say that winning is affirmation and losing is information. And that's true for the most part. But upon reviewing the matches that I won, it is still apparent what my weak points are. As I have said before, the blue belt is a nebulous realm with no clear end point. In Brazillian jiu jitsu, people can spend as long as a blue belt as folks in other martial arts will take going from white belt to black belt. This is quite a formative period and it is not to be rushed. And with so much as still a big question mark, it is worth a lot to get specific guidance about I need to do to improve. By constantly competing and reviewing my matches, I am starting to figure out what I am doing right and what I need to fix. 

For a  write-up on the female medalists, check out /beauty-and-brawn-at-nogi-pan/


Overall, I had a wonderful tournament, but it is time for me to once again focus on training in a gi, Oss!

5 Gracies for the price of 1

As alluded to in my last post, Mask and I ventured to New York last weekend for some jiu jitsu fun. We had considered flying home to visit our families for Thanksgiving, but that would have been lame. Instead, we cashed in our frequent flier miles and went to New York for a seminar hosted by Renzo, Kyra, Gregor, Igor, and Rolles Gracie.

Yes, it was 5 Gracies for the price of 1, an offer too good to pass up. Plus the event was a fundraiser for Kyra's social project, the Kapacidade Institute, which brings jiu jisu (as well as food, tutoring, and other necessities) to impoverished children in Brazil. Here's one of their videos:

The seminar began as expected, with Renzo arriving very much on Brazilian time. But that's where the predictable ended. He proceeded to greet each one of us - all 100+ participants - with a giant, back slapping man-hug (what cool people would call "dap").

After making fun of his relatives and cracking some jokes, he introduced a bashful Kyra, who very humbly and very shyly talked about her project. When describing the living conditions of the children and how much jiu jitsu means to them, her voice cracked. She got teary eyed...and that was when Renzo lost it. To my astonishment, he started crying too.

I know, of course, that bad-asses have feelings too, but usually they aren't expressed so publicly. Through tears. Renzo talked about how proud he was of Kyra and what an amazing young woman she had grown into. He was one proud uncle.

All 5 of the Gracie hosts went on to present great jiu jitsu techniques, but that was not the most memorable part of the seminar. What I took home was that Renzo and his crew are quite possibly the most personable, most affectionate, most humorous, most human bad-asses on this planet.


I was lucky to have met them!